Football Headline

Thursday August 23, 2012The Swamp at 20: How a Phone Call Altered History

GAINESVILLE,
Fla. -- Mike Bianchi was hometown sports columnist of The Gainesville Sun
when his phone rang one morning back in spring of 1992.

It
was Steve Spurrier.

“Got
a story for you, Bianchi,” the Florida football coach said.

Did
he ever.

The
previous November, the Gators had upset rival Florida State 14-9 in the
deafening din at Florida Field. The crowd, Spurrier fawned that sunny fall
afternoon, was monumental in helping UF seal the victory with a huge late-game
defensive stand. The outcome gave the Gators their first 10-win season, as well
as their first defeat of FSU in six years and a perfect 12-0 record at home
through Spurrier’s first two seasons.

“My
first thought when I heard it was, this guy is the sports world’s most unlikely
marketing savant,” recalled Bianchi, who took the cue and wrote the column
anointing the “murky, mushy, marshy” place where Spurrier starred as a player
and was dominating as coach. “We all knew he was a great coach and a great
player, but more than anything he was a Gator through and through.”

And
in swamps, only Gators get out alive.

“Us
Gators are comfortable in there, but we want our opponents to be tentative,”
Spurrier said in pumping the name two decades ago. “A swamp is hot and sticky
and can be dangerous.”

But
advantageous to Gators, of course.

Spurrier
had huddled several times that offseason with Norm Carlson, longtime UF
communications director and Gators historian, to try and come up with a
nickname for the homefield. Together, they kicked a few around.

“Some
were really stupid,” Carlson said last week. “I think one was ‘Gator Bog.’ Can
you imagine?”

No.

Carlson
did some leg work.

He
hit the books and found how UF president John J. Tigert, back in 1930, had
selected the location for a football stadium, describing the area as a “swampy
depression” that was ripe to be developed. The school hired engineers to drain
the area, running pipes that funneled water down the hill along North-South
Drive and dumped it into what is now known as Graham Pond.

Sixty
years later, the “swampy depression” reputation made a rousing comeback when
Spurrier returned to coach his alma mater.

“We
decided to just call it, ‘The Swamp.’ It was so simple,” Carlson said. “But it
was perfect.”

Not
everyone agreed.

UF’s
marketing department was hesitant at first to try and brand the stadium, but
Spurrier was steadfast.

Georgia
played “Between the Hedges.” LSU and Clemson had “Death Valley.” Penn State had
“Happy Valley.” Ohio State had “The Horseshoe,” Michigan the “Big House.”

And
Florida would have “The Swamp.”

The
1992 UF Media Guide was the first to reference the new moniker. A
double-trucked photo, spread across pages 2 and 3, featured the alligator head
statue that stands in the South End Zone tunnel. The picture was accompanied by
the following text:

Entering
“The Swamp”

a.k.a
Florida Field

On
Sept. 12, 1992, the fourth-ranked Gators defeated Kentucky 35-19 to open what would
be their third consecutive unbeaten season at home. The winning streak reached
a nation’s-best 23 in a row until Charlie Ward and No. 1 Florida State won a
33-21 thriller in the final home game of the ‘93 season.

The
Gators went a stunning 68-5 at the “Swamp” under Spurrier (that’s a winning
percentage of .931) and are 122-18 at home (.871) in the 20 years since Florida
Field took on its new and most unique identity.

Next
up: Bowling Green on Sept. 1 to kick off the 2012 season.

Happy
20th anniversary, “Swamp.”

Like
so many things he did as a Gator, Spurrier nailed the nickname, too.

“His
wife, Jeri, once said he doesn’t know how to operate a microwave oven,” Bianchi
said of the former ball coach. “That may be true, but he knows what Gator fans
like and what makes them tick.”